IFSR - International Federation for Systems Research

Cybernetics of Cybernetics
The American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) is promoting a competition open to all to explore how cybernetic understandings might be applied to the workings of a society for the study of cybernetics, such as the ASC. The inspiration for the competition comes from Margaret Mead’s paper “Cybernetics of Cybernetics,” in which she proposes the need for such societies to pay attention to the cybernetic principles they propose, in their own functioning.
Submissions should take no more than 6 sides of US letter or A4 paper, with 12 point print on 15 point spacing. However, forms other than the written word will accepted. All entries will be registered under the collective commons licence. The ASC may chose to implement any suggestions.
For further details (including the full quote from Margaret Mead), please visit http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/CofC
The competition is formally announced on 1 August 2010 and full details will be available on the web site shortly after that date. Judges are being finalised but include Mary Catherine Bateson, Ernst von Glasersfeld, Humberto Maturana and Ranulph Glanville.
Ranulph Glanville ASC President

The first ever conference on a science of information will be held at
the Capital Normal University, Beijing, China, 21‑24 August 2010. A
science of information comprises philosophical, system theoretical,
and disciplinary approaches to understand and tackle information. It
includes Information (and Communication) Technology and Information
Society studies as well. The conference is co‑organised by IFSR member
organisation Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science. For
further information look at the website
www.sciforum.net/conf/fis2010/
which will be regularly updated.

CALL FOR PAPERS

4th Global Conference on Power Control and Optimization (PCO'2010)

ISBN 978-983-44483

http://www.pcoglobal.com

2-4 December 2010, Kucing Borneo Sarawak, Malaysia

Damai Puri Resort, Kucing, Sarawak

http://www.damaipuriresort-kuching.com

It is our great pleasure to announce the Fourth Global Conference on Power Control and Optimization PCO 2010, which will be held in Damai Puri Resort, Kucing, Sarawak, Malaysia from 2 - 4 December 2010.

Scope of the conference is contemporary and original research and educational development in the area of electrical power engineering, control systems and methods of optimization.

Prospective authors from universities or institutes and industries are invited to submit the full paper by email before the deadline. All papers will be peer reviewed by independent specialists.

Conference proceeding will be published online by AIP. Selected papers will be published in Elsevier, Springer, Inderscience, Professional Engineering, and other Journals.

Proposal for holding special sessions, tutorial, exhibition and workshop are invited from prospective authors, industrial bodies and academicians should be addressed to the conference secretariat.

The scope of the conference includes, but not limited to, the following topics:

Hybrid renewable energy and energy saving
Power systems, protection and reliability
Controllers, drives and machine design
Smart system and dynamic robust system
Mechatronics and nano physics
NEMS and MEMS
Simulators and software engineering
Soft computing and computational intelligent
Fuzzy and hybrid optimization
Bioinformatics and body sensors
Inventory, queuing and game theory
Control Systems
FEM
Power Electronics
Robotics and Sensors
Artificial immune systems & neural network
Evolutionary algorithms
Ant colony, genetic and swarm optimization
probabilistic and possibilistic optimization
Production design and rough set
Line, pattern searches and decision making
Micro transportation and civil structure
Cams & gear design and optimum valves
Network communication and wireless sensor
Scheduling and assignment problems
Graph theory and supply chain management
Simulation and Modeling
Operational Research
Intelligent Systems & Applications
Energy, Hydrogen energy, Bio-energy and Fuel
Heat transfer & Biomass
Fusion technology
Automatic computing, Biological computing
Coordinative intelligence, Granular computing
Humanized intelligence,Cloud computing
Hybrid artificial & Natural intelligence and computing
Computer Science & Computer Engineering
Climate & energy systems, wind energy, fuel cells & Hydrogen, Solar energy, Nuclear technologies

Steering Committee

Prof. Dr. Felix Chernousko, Russia

Prof. Dr. Andrew Kusiak, USA

Dr. Kenneth Adan, Malaysia

Dr. Rami Hikmat, Jordan

Dr. Sermsak Uatrongjit, Thailand

Dr. Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber, Turkey

Keynote Speaker

Prof. Dr. Milun Babic (Serbia)

Prof. Dr. Tsu Tian Lee (Taiwan)

Prof. Dr. Mingcong Deng (Japan)

Prof. Dr. T. S. Zhao (Hong Kong)

Prof. Dr. Yew Soon Wong(Singapore))

Prof. Dr. Alan Oxley (Malaysia)

Prof. Dr. M. Ahmad Al-Nimr (Jordan)

Prof. Dr. Robert Grubbstrom (Sweden)

Prof. Dr. Vladimir Fedorov (Russia)

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Borutzky (Germany)

Prof. Dr. Vitezslav Benda (Czech Republic)
Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Höflinger (Austria)

Organizing Committee

Prof. Dr. Nader Barsoum, Malaysia (Chairman)

Dr. Pandian Vasant, Malaysia

Dr. Rabi W Yousif, Malaysia

Dr. Jeffrey Webb, Malaysia

International Program Committee

Please refer to http://www.pcoglobal.com

Submission of Full Papers:01/08/2010

Notification with Peer Review: 01/09/2010

Camera-ready Paper: 15/10/2010

Registration with Full Payment: 15/10/2010

All correspondence should be addressed to the conference secretariat:

Tel: 605 3711 416, 6085 44 3821

Email: pcoglobal@gmail.com

Website:http://www.pcoglobal.com

Sincerely yours,

PCO'2010 Conference Secretary General

PCO Global

Call for Participation/Contributions

Fourth International Conference on the Foundations of Information Science

FlS 2010: Towards a New Science of Information

Beijing: 20-23 August, 2010

Conference website: www.fis2010.cn (http://fis2010.sisi2006.cn/fis2010/index.aspx)

Continuing the series of FIS Conferences (Madrid 1994, Vienna 1996, Paris 2005) a new venue will be held in Beijing 2010. In our times, an increasing number of disciplines are dealing with information in very different ways: from information society and information technology to communication studies (and related subjects like codes, meaning, knowledge, and intelligence), as well as quantum information, bioinformation, knowledge economy, network science, computer science and Internet, to name but a few. At the same time, an increasing number of scientists in the East and the West have been engaged with the foundational problems underlying this development, to such an extent that the integration of disciplines revolving around information seems an idea whose time has come. A new science of information can be envisaged that explores the possibilities of establishing a common ground around the information concept, of constructing a new scientific perspective that connects the different information-related disciplines and provides a new framework for transdisciplinary research.

Deadline of Paper Submission: May 20, 2010
Acceptance Notification: June 20, 2010
Camera-Ready Paper: July 10, 2010
Paper Collection Published: August 20, 2010

HELLENIC SOCIETY FOR SYSTEMIC STUDIES (HSSS)

6th. National & International Conference
23 - 26 June, 2010
email: hsss06@soc.aegean.gr

University of the Aegean,
School of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology,
Lesvos Island, Greece.

“Systemic Approaches in Social Structures”
http://www.hsss.gr/hsss06

Cybernetics: Art, Design, Mathematics — A Meta-Disciplinary Conversation (C:ADM2010)
(July 30 - August 2, 2010, Troy, NY, USA)
organized by the American Society for Cybernetics.

The American Society for Cybernetics (with its partners at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) is proud to announce a radical conference to take place in upper New York State in the summer of 2010. This conference brings together 4 fields—Cybernetics: Art, Design, Mathematics. The conference is intended as a place for conferring and conversing, from which next steps will be taken rather than last steps reported. The main conference has 3 surrounding events. Upper New York State is in one of the most beautiful parts of the USA, and is an ideal base for a holiday.

For details see: Conference site

Russel Ackoff (1919 - 2009) was one of father of systems thinking, especially with respect to management. (For several obituaries click here)

I am glad to announce that my PhD thesis officially entitled "A Cybernetic Development of Theories of Epistemology and Observation, with reference to Space and Time, as seen in Architecture" (also known as "The Object of Objects, the Point of Points, —or Something about Things") has now, 35 years later, been made available by the British Library as key PhD Thesis selected for scanning and free access.
This text is searchable, although the searchability is not all that good. If you need better search facilities, contact me directly.
The thesis is seen as an important text in second order cbernetics. The thesis deals with a question that is central to second order cybernetics. If the observer is always present, and if each observer is different, what sort of structure would support this presence and this difference, while allowing us to believe that we observe "the same thing". In the thesis I propose a formulation and a structure, based on self-observation, which generates a logic of observational connection, and means of communication, —representation and conversation.
It is presented in a terse, elegiac, aphoristic, poetic form, with a parallel text of footnotes. It is illustrated with studies of how we understand the city, 6 short stories and a piece of music: and is summarised in 16 limerick poems.

You can access the thesis as follows: go to the url http://ethos.bl.uk You will have to sign in.
then ask for uk.bl.ethos.456747 Note that the author is Glanville, R.

(If you ask for Glanville, Ranulph, you will find my second PhD thesis, which is concerned with spatial conception in architecture, and is a saga of failure and re- formulation leading to the understanding of the essential holism of perception. You will have to pay for that one. )

Everybody new "G.A" (Gale Alden) Swanson and it is hard to believe that he is not any more amongst us!
For more details see the Obituary

The United Kingdom
OR51 Annual Conference

As the organiser of the Systems Thinking stream at the OR51 conference, I would like to invite your participation in this year's conferenceto be held at the University of Warwick, Warwick, UK, September 8-10, 2009. The conference will draw a wide range of research and practice in the field of Operational Research and we invite your contribution to the Systems Thinking stream, For details and deadlines see:

http://www.orsoc.org.uk/orshop/(rnjaeqrae3uyls455sewruj2)/orcontent.aspx?inc=or51_Information_presenters.htm

The main conference website can be found at:
http://www.orsoc.org.uk/orshop/(rnjaeqrae3uyls455sewruj2)/orcontent.aspx?inc=or51_main.htm

Jennifer Wilby
Stream Organiser, Systems Thinking
j.wilby@hull.ac.uk
Frances O'Brien and Ruth Davies are delighted to be organising OR51 from September 8th to 10th, 2009. Please reserve these dates in your diary or on-line calendar now. OR51 will have a programme, full of interest, appealing to a wide range of individuals. It is located at the University Warwick, a dynamic university with a large well-known OR group. We anticipate an extensive and interesting scientific programme with contributions from both academics and practitioners. We are planning that the plenaries and some keynotes should address contemporary concerns such as climate change and the financial crisis. The plenaries, streams, coffee and exhibitions will be co-located, with all but two rooms under one roof and all within easy access.

We expect that the social programme will include a drinks reception, the ever-popular bar quiz and external visits. The University is situated on the outskirts of Coventry, close to the Warwickshire countryside and only one hour and ten minutes from London by train. Local sites of interest include Coventry cathedral and the guildhall, Kenilworth castle, the Heritage motor museum, the National motorcycle museum, Warwick castle and Shakespeare's birthplace.

Whilst the OR51 conference fees have not yet been set and will be live for booking purposes at the end of May 2009 we hope to keep the fees similar to 2008 which were: Whole conference registration fees (early booking rate) started at £340 + VAT for ORS members whilst accommodation fees were £60 + VAT per night. ORS student registration cost £120 + VAT.

Ruth Davies, University of Warwick, ruth.davies@wbs.ac.uk

Frances O'Brien, University of Warwick, Frances.O'Brien@wbs.ac.uk

4th IRDO international conference
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CURRENT CHALLENGES 2009
"WORK - A BRIDGE TO COOPERATION:
Relations with coworkers and different age generations"
Wednesday and Thursday, the 3rd and 4th June 2009 (Maribor, Slovenia)
for Details see Call f. papers (1) and Call f. papers (2)

The IFSR-Newsletter December 2008 is available -
vol.26 no.1 (2008) --click here! --

70th Birthday of Prof. Robert Trappl!

On January 16, 2007 Prof. Robert Trappl turned 70!
Prof. Trappl was Professor for Medical Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence and Head of the Institute for
Medical Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence (1977-2003 at the University of Vienna, 2004 - 2007 at the Medical University Vienna).
He founded the Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies in 1969 and since that time he is its President.
Since 1984 he is President of the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Vienna (OFAI), which he founded in 1984.

He is a cofounder of the International Federation for Systems Research (1980), being Vice-President from 1980 to 1984 and President from 1984 to 1988, and one of the main supporters of the IFSR
( vol.1 no.1 >(IFSR Newsletter No. 1 (1981)) )

The European Meetings of European Meetings on Cybernetics and
Systems Research held since 1972 biannually in Vienna and attracting around 400 to 500 participants form more than 40 countries,
was one of the crystallisation points for the IFSR and for one of its flagships, the biannual Fuschl Conversations in Fuschl, near Salzburg.

The IFSR wants to express its deepest gratitude for his contributions to systems sciences in general and to the IFSR in particular.

Matjaz Mulej, Yoshiteru Nakamori, Gary Metcalf, Gerhard Chroust
Executive Committee of the IFSR

Detailed curricula vitae can be found (amongst others) on

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies (HSSS):
5th National & International HSSS Conference
Demokritus University of Thrace,
Dept. of Production and Management Engineering, Xanthi, Greece
“From Systemic Thinking to Systems Design and Systems Practice”
(24th - 27th June, 2009 )
Submission deadline (Abstract): 20 March 2009
for Details click here

Charles François nomination’ as Honorary Professor
of Universidad Instituto Tecnológico of Buenos Aires

Charles François has been nominated Honorary Professor by the highly prestigious Universidad Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires (ITBA) of Argentina on October 31st 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
(see
Report

2 pictures

Meet a cybernetician – videos on demand.

14.11.2008, 20:00, Echoraum, Sechshausergasse 66, 1150 Wien

more information

The « 7th Congress of Union Européenne de Systémique » will be held in Lisbon from December 17 to 19, 2008. See www.afscet.asso.fr or www.apocosis.org Working language : English. French also accepted with extensive abstracts in English.

2008-11-21/22 Berliner November, Berlin
Details see attachment (in German)